1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the fabrication of integrated circuits and electronic devices and, more particularly, to fabrication methods and related structures.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a consequence of many factors, including demand for increased portability, computing power, memory capacity and energy efficiency, integrated circuits are constantly being reduced in size. The sizes of the constituent features that form the integrated circuits, e.g., electrical devices and interconnect lines, are also constantly being decreased to facilitate this size reduction.
The trend of decreasing feature size is evident, for example, in memory circuits or devices such as dynamic random access memories (DRAMs), flash memory, static random access memories (SRAMs), ferroelectric (FE) memories, etc. To take one example, DRAM typically includes millions or billions of identical circuit elements, known as memory cells. A memory cell typically consists of two electrical devices: a storage capacitor and an access field effect transistor. Each memory cell is an addressable location that may store one bit (binary digit) of data. A bit may be written to a cell through the transistor and may be read by sensing charge in the capacitor.
In another example, flash memory typically includes billions of flash memory cells containing floating gate field effect transistors that can retain a charge. The presence or absence of a charge in the floating gate determines the logic state of the memory cell. A bit may be written to a cell by injecting charge to or removing charge from a cell. Flash memory cells may be connected in different architecture configurations, each with different schemes for reading bits. In a “NOR” architecture configuration, each memory cell is coupled to a bit line and may be read individually. In a “NAND” architecture configuration, memory cells are aligned in a “string” of cells, and an entire bit line is activated to access data in one of the string of cells.
In general, by decreasing the sizes of the electrical devices that constitute a memory cell and the sizes of the conducting lines that access the memory cells, the memory devices may be made smaller. Additionally, storage capacities may be increased by fitting more memory cells on a given area in the memory devices.
The concept of pitch may be used to describe one aspect of the sizes of features in an integrated circuit such as a memory device. Pitch is defined as the distance between identical points in two neighboring features, such as features in an array, which are typically arranged in a repeating pattern. These features are typically defined by spaces between adjacent features, which spaces are typically filled by a material, such as an insulator. As a result, pitch may be viewed as the sum of the width of a feature and of the width of the space on one side of the feature separating that feature from a neighboring feature. It will be appreciated that the spaces and features, such as lines, typically repeat to form a repetitive pattern of spacers and features.
Critical dimension (CD) is another term used to describe the sizes of features. The critical dimension is the smallest dimension of a feature in a particular circuit or masking scheme. Controlling the CD of certain structures, such as shallow trench isolation (STI) structures, during integrated circuit fabrication helps to facilitate the continued size reduction of integrated circuits by, e.g., ensuring predictable circuit performance.
The continual reduction in feature sizes places ever greater demands on the techniques used to form the features. For example, photolithography is commonly used to pattern features, such as conductive lines, in integrated circuit fabrication. However, due to factors such as optics, light or radiation wavelength and available photoresist materials, photolithography techniques may each have a minimum pitch or critical dimension below which a particular photolithographic technique cannot reliably form features. Thus, the inherent limitations of photolithographic techniques are obstacles to continued feature size reduction.
“Pitch doubling,” which is also referred to as “pitch multiplication,” is one proposed method for extending the capabilities of photolithographic techniques beyond their minimum pitch. A pitch multiplication method is illustrated in FIGS. 1A-1F and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,810, issued to Lowrey et al. With reference to FIG. 1A, a pattern of lines 10 is photolithographically formed in a photoresist layer, which overlies a layer 20 of an expendable material, which in turn overlies a substrate 30. As shown in FIG. 1B, the pattern in the photoresist layer is transferred to the layer 20, thereby forming placeholders, which are also referred to herein as mandrels, 40. The photoresist lines 10 are stripped and the mandrels 40 are etched to increase the distance between neighboring mandrels 40, as shown in FIG. 1C. A layer 50 of spacer material is subsequently deposited over the mandrels 40, as shown in FIG. 1D. Spacers 60 are then formed on the sides of the mandrels 40. The spacer formation can be accomplished by preferentially etching the spacer material from the horizontal surfaces 70 and 80, as shown in FIG. 1E. The remaining mandrels 40 are then removed, leaving behind only the spacers 60, which together act as a mask for patterning, as shown in FIG. 1F. Thus, where a given pitch previously included a pattern defining one feature and one space, the same width now includes two features and two spaces, with the spaces defined by the spacers 60.
While the pitch is actually halved in the example above, this reduction in pitch is conventionally referred to as pitch “doubling,” or, more generally, pitch “multiplication.” Thus, conventionally, “multiplication” of pitch by a certain factor actually involves reducing the pitch by that factor. The conventional terminology is retained herein.
While allowing for smaller critical dimensions and pitch, pitch multiplication faces continuing development as new challenges emerge, as the requirements of integrated circuit fabrication change. Accordingly, there is a constant need for methods and structures for forming small features.